Civil Defense

The Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) integrated the public into the everyday preparedness for nuclear attack on homeland cities. Through recruiting in leadership positions such as policemen, as well as volunteers, community members at every level and across all parts of the city were made responsible for the outcome of survival following a nuclear attack. Provided with an official Civil Defense Identification Card and assignment, registered members were to be ready to help treat survivors, implement emergency evacuations, or to simply have sufficient supplies on-hand for an attack at any moment. Many community members were directly involved in civil defense practices, even if it was just part of their everyday job or by being a stay-at-home mom with a stocked fallout shelter.

From World War to Cold War Administration

The dropping of the atom bomb in 1945—and the Soviet Union's attainment of nuclear capability in 1949—transformed the meaning of civil defense. During World War II, the government drafted citizens to make tangible contributions to the war effort. During the Cold War, however, there was little for citizens to do. Preparedness became the center of all attention for Civil Defense administrators, volunteers, and families. In January 1951 President Truman created the Federal Civil Defense Administration. A pedagogical propaganda agency, FCDA developed curricula for public schools and distributed brochures, films, and radio segments. Home-economics classes taught girls how to furnish bomb shelters. Advertising firms lent their experts to the mission, newspapers offered free placement of FCDA ads, and celebrities from Orson Welles to Ozzie and Harriet signed up to help pitch the cause.

Cold War Sirens

The Civil Defense Siren was first introduced during World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the number of sirens and siren systems in most cities spread much more rapidly during the Cold War. Federally distributed pamphlets and films, aimed at educating both adults and children, would spread the word of what to do in case of an alert. Although siren systems were typically controlled by local governments or police departments, the sirens were built by outside companies with a vested interest in increasing sales.

While the hypothetical image of nuclear war often followed from early bombing techniques of WWII, Cold War warning systems manufacturers had to respond to the development of military technology. Early warning and defense systems built as responses to bomber planes could spot potential threats hours before they were actually in the position to drop their bombs. While defensive systems like the Nike Ajax and Hercules missiles had been developed to defend against such scenarios, with the introduction of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), such short-range defenses not only became obsolete, but the window to warn entire populations dwindled to a matter of minutes.​

Listen to the siren attack and alert signals by clicking on the image.

Like many aspects of the Cold War, Civil Defense Sirens became part of peoples daily lives. In Los Angeles, sirens were tested in unison at 10 a.m. on the last Friday of every month. Typically placed atop tall fire stations or attached to 30-foot steel poles, residents would hear a loud blast from the sirens; an experience many still talk about today.

Fallout Shelters and Families

Fallout shelters, like the Civil Defense Administration and Cold War sirens, were not a completely novel idea for the Cold War era, but rather built upon the structures created in World War II. In their initial form, basements and simple structures were converted into bunkers where the family could survive the effects of the initial blast, with time ranging from days to weeks. Although the efforts produced by civil defense programs sought to inform citizens on how to protect themselves and their families, little was known about the full effects of radioactive fallout. As more was learned, families have to prepare to live underground for months or years, adding elements such as air-cleaning systems to account for the radioactivity in the air.

Assuming that major cities would be targets for bombing, early efforts prioritized moving defense industry workers out of the city and into suburbs away from the devastation of an attack. While suburbanization would successfully pre-evacuate many from the city, suburban areas also provided the ideal setting for backyard or basement shelters. Government offices and private contractors began catering to a white middle-class image of suburban life as later designs of family shelters promised to minimize the effects of a nuclear war on the daily lives of individuals.

When the FCDA was replaced by the Office of Civil Defense Mobilization (OCDM) in 1958, the new line became a "do it yourself" approach to containment and preparedness. Although the government could not guarantee the survival of every citizen, the "Self Help" approach placed responsibility on every person, but still relied on government agencies to provide information believed to be essential to shelter design. Often, roles were designated for each member of the family, largely based on the conventional family structure - housewives became the central figure of discipline for the entire family in the case of preparation, and fathers were the representation of strength and common sense in surviving the weeks that would follow an attack.

"Bombshelteritis" and Shelter Realities

The New York Times reported in 1951 on the epidemic of "bombshelteritis" which subsided within the same year; during moments of heightened peril, the concerns of individuals and families would often increase the building of fallout shelters or the purchasing of shelter food and water supplies. Until the 1960's, American families sporadically built bunkers that promised to protect them. Although few shelters were actually built in the home, those that were usually included a certain amount of secrecy. Shelter owners were often plagued by the thought of unwanted people showing up, and in need of supplies.